Hockeyroos end London Olympics campaign with 2-0 win against China

THREE-TIMES Olympic champion Australia has finished fifth in the women's hockey tournament after chiselling out a 2-0 win against China.

It means the Australians have conceded only two goals in six matches all tournament, but once again, despite dominating long periods of play, they found it hard to score.

It was this which more than anything prevented them reaching the semis.

It took the Hockeyroos until the 41st minute to take the lead through Jodie Schulz from a penalty corner and until 10 minutes before the end before Jade Close scored the second after good work by Hope Munro.

"We might not have got the goals that we wanted, but we went out hard every game and I thought we fought really well," Close said.

"For an inexperienced team, we (competed) with all the top sides. Overall, our campaign was amazing."

The lack of cutting edge against China left Australia vulnerable to a demoralising counter-attack strike, which almost happened as the tenacious Chinese fought back well in the last 15 minutes.

During this high-octane phase Song Qingling hit a post after great work by Li Hongxia, after which China won three penalty corners from which they were unable to score.

From the last of them Song got the ball into the net, and a goal was awarded, only for it to be disallowed after an infringement became evident during the video replay Australia requested.

It was Australia's first win over China in a major international tournament since 2005.

"It's a bit disappointing that we don't come out with a medal, but still good to come out and put out a really good performance and get a win and take that fifth place," Schulz said.

The Netherlands clinched their second successive women's gold medal as they beat world champion Argentina 2-0.

Second-half goals from Carlien Dirkse van den Houvel and captain Maartje Paumen gave the Dutch women their third Olympic gold, having won in Beijing four years ago and in Los Angeles in 1984.

Great Britain won the bronze medal with a 3-1 victory against New Zealand.